What is sony-head-tracker?

Sony Head Tracker is a free, unofficial tool that turns the motion sensors already built into certain Sony headphones and earbuds into a real-time head tracker for Windows and macOS. It was originally built and tested with the Sony WH-1000XM5, and now works with any compatible Sony headset that supports the standard Android Head Tracker sensor protocol. No webcam, infrared camera, extra hardware, or modified firmware is needed. The tool connects to the headset's built-in orientation sensor and streams live yaw, pitch, and roll data, either to OpenTrack, a popular head-tracking program used in racing and flight simulator games, or directly to your own applications through a local JSON data stream. This means someone who already owns a supported pair of Sony headphones can get head tracking in simulator games for free, without buying dedicated tracking hardware. On Windows, the app is a downloadable executable that automatically finds compatible sensors once the headphones are paired, and includes a Repair Tracker button to fix a common first-boot issue where Windows pairs the headset but does not immediately expose its tracking sensor. On macOS, it ships as a native SwiftUI application plus a separate command-line bridge, and works by identifying the sensor's descriptor rather than a specific device model, so newer compatible headsets should work without updates. Setting it up for games involves selecting the tracker as a UDP network input inside OpenTrack. The project has been covered by outlets including PC Gamer, Tom's Hardware, and Hackaday, and reports supporting head tracking in over 200 PC games through OpenTrack. It is released under the MIT license and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sony.